Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Methodol. Dec 20, 2023; 13(5): 456-465
Published online Dec 20, 2023. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v13.i5.456
Effect of vaccination status on CORADS and computed tomography severity score in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: A retrospective study
Umut Devrim Binay, Erdal Karavaş, Faruk Karakeçili, Orçun Barkay, Sonay Aydin, Düzgün Can Şenbil
Umut Devrim Binay, Faruk Karakeçili, Orçun Barkay, Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Erzincan Binali Yildirim University, Faculty of Medicine, Erzincan 24000, Turkey
Erdal Karavaş, Department of Radiology, Bandırma 17 Eylül University, Faculty of Medicine, Balıkesir 10200, Turkey
Sonay Aydin, Düzgün Can Şenbil, Department of Radiology, Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, Faculty of Medicine, Erzincan 24000, Turkey
Author contributions: Binay UD designed and performed the research and wrote the manuscript; Karavas E designed the research and supervised the report; Karakeçili F designed the research and contributed to the analysis; Barkay O, Aydin S, Senbil DC provided clinical advice; Barkay O, Aydin S, Senbil DC supervised the report. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Erzincan Binali Yildirim University Ethics Committee (Approval No: 04/16).
Informed consent statement: Since it is a retrospective study, patient consent was not obtained.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: Data will be shared upon request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Umut Devrim Binay, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Erzincan Binali Yildirim University, Faculty of Medicine, Başbağlar Mahallesi, Hacı Ali Akın Sokağı, Erzincan 24000, Turkey. umut.binay@erzincan.edu.tr
Received: September 27, 2023
Peer-review started: September 27, 2023
First decision: November 2, 2023
Revised: November 6, 2023
Accepted: December 7, 2023
Article in press: December 7, 2023
Published online: December 20, 2023
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is continuing. The disease most commonly affects the lungs. Since the beginning of the pandemic thorax computed tomography (CT) has been an indispensable imaging method for diagnosis and follow-up. The disease is tried to be controlled with vaccines. Vaccination reduces the possibility of a severe course of the disease.

AIM

The aim of this study is to investigate whether the vaccination status of patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 has an effect on the CT severity score (CT-SS) and CORADS score obtained during hospitalization.

METHODS

The files of patients hospitalized between April 1, 2021 and April 1, 2022 due to COVID-19 were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 224 patients who were older than 18 years of age, whose vaccination status was accessible, whose severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 polymerase chain reaction result was positive, and who had a Thorax CT scan during hospitalization were included in the study.

RESULTS

Among the patients included in the study, 52.2% were female and the mean age was 61.85 years. The patients applied to the hospital on the average 7th day of their complaints. While 63 patients were unvaccinated (Group 1), 20 were vaccinated with a single dose of CoronaVac (Group 2), 24 with a single dose of BioNTech (Group 3), 38 with 2 doses of CoronaVac (Group 4), 40 with 2 doses of BioNTech (Group 5), and 39 with 3 doses of vaccine (2 doses of CoronaVac followed by a single dose of BioNTech, Group 6). CT-SS ranged from 5 to 23, with a mean of 12.17.

CT-SS mean of the groups were determined as 14.17, 13.35, 11.58, 10.87, 11.28, 10.85, respectively. Accordingly, as a result of the comparisons between the groups, the CT-SS levels of the unvaccinated patients found to be significantly higher than the other groups. As the vaccination rates increased, the rate of typical COVID-19 findings on CT was found to be significantly lower.

CONCLUSION

Increased vaccination rates in COVID-19 patients reduce the probability of typical COVID-19 symptoms in the lungs. It also reduces the risk of severe disease and decreases CT Severity Scores. This may lead to a loss of importance of Thorax CT in the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia as the end of the pandemic approaches.

Keywords: COVID-19, CORADS, Computed tomography severity score, Thorax computed tomography, SARS-CoV-2, Vaccination

Core Tip: This is a retrospective study to evaluate the effect of vaccination status on CORADS and computed tomography (CT) severity score in hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. Accordingly, as a result of the comparisons between the groups, the CT severity score levels of the unvaccinated patients were significantly higher than the other groups. As the vaccination rates increased, the rate of typical COVID-19 findings on CT was found to be significantly lower.